UEFA Cup 10/31

Boavista - Anorthosis 1@1.36 (Premierbet)

APOEL - Hertha Berlin 2@1.90 (Centrebet)

It will truly be a scary day ofthose 2 don't come through. Also:

Alaves - Besiktas 2@4.60 (Interwetten)

Boavista- Anorthosis 1@1.36
UEFA Cup – second round Anorthosis currently sit in fourth place in Cyprus, after losing to middle of the table Achnas. Before that they barely managed a come from behind, one-goal home victory over second-from-the-bottom Alki, and before that they were handed a 4-2 loss away to ninth-place AEP. They got past Greek club Iraklis on away goals in the first round, but almost didn’t get that far, narrowly defeating Luxembourg (yes, Luxembourg) team Grevenmacher CS 3-2. Their run looks to end here. That Polish players Wojciech Kowalczyk, who scored 24 league goals last year, and Slawomir Majak have recently left the team amidst controversy will not help. Boavista have been very mediocre in the Portugal this year, currently sitting in a disappointing tenth. They got by Maccabi Tel Aviv 4-2 on aggregate in the first round, winning the home leg 4-1. Cypriot sides have shown surprisingly well for themselves thus far in the tournament, but playing at home, Boavista should handle Anorthosis without much difficulty.


APOEL Hertha Berlin 2@1.90
UEFA Cup – second round I’m picking against another Cypriot side here. APOEL, currently second in their league, did well to get past mediocre Austrian side Grazer AK in the first round to get this far. In Champions League qualifying they got past Estonian side FC Flora (1-0 agg.) and Slovenia’s NK Maribor (5-4 agg.) before losing to AEK Athens (4-2 agg.). Dutch coach Egen Gerard has stated that they’ve done better than they imagined possible and that anything else would just be a bonus. They face a very tough challenge in Hertha Berlin, who currently sit fifth in the Bundesliga. Though they weren’t too impressive in slipping past Aberdeen in the UEFA Cup’s first round, Hertha have shown good away form in the Bundesliga, taking 8 points from 5 matches. The tough German squad should prove too much for APOEL.

Alaves - Besiktas 2@4.60
UEFA Cup – second round In 2001 Alaves’ rise from obscurity climaxed with the UEFA Cup final where they lost 5-4 to Liverpool in a memorable match. If their league form doesn’t improve they could be on their way back to obscurity. They currently sit in 18th place in Spain and are coming off a devastating 6-1 loss away to Barcelona. They got past Anakaragucu with surprising ease in the UEFA Cup first round, but will now face a much better Turkish side in the form of Besiktas. Besiktas sit in second in Turkey, one point behind Galatasary. After blowing a 2-0 lead vs FK Sarajevo in the UEFA Cup first round, they came back to win the away leg 0-5, an impressive away result even if Sarajevo are not a terrible strong squad. They are more than capable of taking 3 points from Alaves, who have given up 13 goals in their last 3 league matches (albeit that was against about the toughest teams in Spain right now). Winning away in Spain will not be easy, but I like their chances much more than the bookmakers do. I think they are looking more at the fact that this is the Turkish League away to the stronger Spanish League and not properly evaluating the teams themselves

 

[R]


























Friggin' 90' equlizer by Alaves keeps me from a really big day. Came out ahead overall at least. Some bookie out there needs to run a promotion whereby they refund bets lost in the 90th minute. They'd get my business.